Curriculum Purge

I packed up all our curriculum and textbooks at the beginning of the
summer. That was scary but freeing. I have two math-ish books that are
still around. Life of Fred and Murderous Maths.They are
story books and present real-world examples which hold more value. My
kids had started to despise math and see it as dreary and repetitive and
boring. I hope these books get us back to seeing that math is fun and
useful and interesting again. We don't use them everyday and we only read them as long as they interest us.

We read what we want. Books, magazines, comics, instructions, websites, blogs. I have stopped freaking at the library. They check out what they want and if they try it and don't like it they move on. My kids are encouraged to read the way I do. They read what interests them. We listen to audiobooks in the car. Right now we are finishing "The Sisters Grimm" series which is a modern take on The Brothers Grimm. We might not do all or any of "the classics." I have read a lot of these books and I can't remember most of them because they did not resonate with me. If they do with the kids great. But there are too many great books that aren't considered classics to get bogged down with what we "should" be reading.

We write what we want. G-Lo writes articles for the co-op newspaper. She also has a few novels in the works. She has a blog she updates sometimes. She told me her spelling has improved a lot since she started working on the computer ( love spellcheck). S-Boy likes drawing illustrations and writing descriptions and titles for them. If he asks how to spell something I tell him and don't say "How do you think it's spelled?" He wouldn't ask if he knew!

We talk about current events. We talk about historical events. They process and sometimes come back with insights we didn't consider. It is a conversation. The election has sparked so much discussion. I loved talking about the electoral college with them because they are so quick! "So sometimes the person with the most votes doesn't win?" I know adults who don't get that.

All this to say I am slowly learning that even without me pulling out books, handing out assignments and following a schedule they are learning. I am a guide, facilitator, partner, chauffeur. They are learning who they and what they want to know in their own time. The most important part of this to me is our relationship. I value that over any arbitrary subject I could insist they learn right this minute.